My wife and I will be in Berlin for five nights in May (probably staying in Mitte), and our 18-month-old will be along for the ride. I'd love to hear about your favorite kid-friendly restaurants. We're going to get a sitter one night and head out to Reinstoff, but the rest of the meals (including breakfast and lunch) are open.

We'd like to try a variety of places and styles, but the priority is to get a good feel for the dining and culture of Berlin - what places do locals think of as "uniquely Berlin"? That's our speed here. We'd like to make sure we get some excellent food, but we can also get by on pretty good food if the sense of place is compelling. Price isn't too important, but we tend to prefer working a couple divey places into the mix. And we'll definitely want to try a more traditional german place and a biergarten or three, but I'd love to hear about your kid-friendly favorites, no matter the category.

Hi all -- I'm heading to LA for business three days next week (from SF), and I'm hoping to locate two sushi destinations. I know there's a lot of boards on LA sushi, but I have some specific needs:

(1) I'm going solo, and I don't do tables alone. So sushi bar required. (2) One night, it'd be nice to do omakaze for around $100, but that could creep up a bit if the quality really warrants it. $200 is a firm max, so no Urasawa for me. I'm carless in downtown; I could cab out as far as Santa Monica, but don't want to head much further afield than that. Minimal bonus points for nice ambiance and good service, zero bonus points for hipness or celebrity - my focus is on the fish! (3) Another night, I'd like to wander over to Japantown, and find a place there. A bit higher premium on ambiance and service for this night (but still, no credit for hipness).